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Another of the ways The Village
tries to confuse Number Six!
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One of the disorientation techniques employed by The Village was to use an exact replica of an inmate. One moment The Prisoner would be interacting with a character, he'd turn away, only to be confronted with what looked like exactly the same person, either continuing the same action or maybe doing or behaving totally differently.
We see it first during "Arrival" when the electrician, played by Oliver MacGreevy, turns up to do some minor electrical repairs at Number Six's cottage. After a brief, perplexing, conversation about his mode of transport, Number Six goes outside for a walk. Almost immediately he literally bumps into a gardener who warns him to be careful about damaging his new plants.
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It doesn't really seem to sink in at first, but the gardener is an exact twin of the electrician. Number Six, still trying to come to terms with his new environment, seems to note this as something odd but not significant and goes on his way. The Village is also content at this time to have simply inserted a note of perplexity. However, it will repeat the process and with much greater malice in the weeks and months to come, taking it to the extreme in the later episode "The Schizoid Man" where Number Six himself becomes an unwilling twin.
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 |  | Another indentical twin scenario occurs in "Free For All". Number Six has been tricked into taking part in an election to select a new Number Two. He has to attend a meeting at the Town Hall and is being driven there in one of the mini-moke taxis. Two men chase after the taxi and leap aboard.
They purport to be newspaper reporters. One of them, played by Harold Berens, interviews Number 6. The other, played by Dene Cooper, perches on the bonnet of the vehicle, grinning maniacally and constantly taking photographs, exhorting him to "smile".
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As they pull up outside the Town Hall and get out of the Taxi, the photographer wishes Number Six well and runs off back up the hill. As Number Six turns away, he's immediately confronted by a newsvendor turning the handle of an odd mangle-like machine and shouting "Read all about it". Number Six reacts with shock as he realises that the newsvendor is an exact duplicate of the photographer.
Uncertain about what's happening, he turns to look at the photographer. The figure is now a long way off, but it's definitely him as he waves back goodbye.
In stark contrast to the cheerful, wacky photographer, the newsvendor is dangerously impassive. He avoids looking directly at Number Six as he turns the handle of the machine and tears off a newsheet which he hands it to the now threatened Prisoner.
The whole mood has suddenly and chilling changed. Moments before, the area was populated with people in bright Village gear, there was the taxi, the cheerful reporters and lots of peripheral action and noise. Suddenly that's all disappeared, there's not a soul in sight, and Number Six is alone with this scary and silent newsvendor.
As he reads the newspaper, which is the interview he's just supposedly given, his feeling of entrapment is heightened by the appearance of Rover swooping towards him and cutting short any thoughts of retreat.
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Number Six has no choice but to follow instructions over the Village annunciator system to enter the Town Hall.
Once inside, he is interrogated by Number Two in the Star Chamber and then undergoes hypnotherapy in an underground treatment room.
Now thoroughly indoctrinated, Number Six emerges from the Town Hall. The scary newsvendor and his newspaper machine have gone and the previously empty Village is now full of people, colour and noise.
As he receives a rapturous welcome, the photographer twin re-appears, clutching a microphone and recording an interview with him for a later TV broadcast.
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 | The substitution of the physically identical, but motivationally different twin provides a superb way of bridging mood swings as the episode veers from safe, bright environment to threatening isolation and then back again.
This whole episode can only be described as Kafka-esque and the parallels to Kafka's story "The Trial" are inevitable. Interestingly, Patrick McGoohan denies having ever read Kafka, but the similarities are there one way or another.
Dene Cooper is understatedly good in the short scenes he has, making the most of a relatively small but important role. His list of UK TV and film credits is regrettably short as he moved to New Zealand not long after "The Prisoner" and died in 1974.
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 Born in Middlesborough, UK, on October 17th 1939 and christened Anthony (Tony) Jack Ditchburn, Dene wanted to be an actor from a very early age and took part in school plays including the leading role in "Julius Caesar" at Acklane Grammar School. He was also a member of the Middlesborough Little Theatre and honed his skills on many amateur dramatic productions from plays to pantomimes.
After winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he left Middlesborough to live in London. He spent a lot of time touring in such plays as "Dial M For Murder" and also started getting TV work. He appeared in "That Was The Week That Was", took part in a documentary called "The Home Of Shakespeare", played a recurring role in a four-part serial called "Spread Of The Eagle" starring Peter Cushing and Keith Michel and was a croupier in an episode of "Callan".
It was during his work in television that he changed his name to "Dean Cooper". The "Dean" part he chose because of James Dean, one of his favourite actors. "Cooper" came from the last name of his Auntie, who was also his Godmother. "Dean" finally became "Dene" and it was under this name that he played the dual role of press photographer and news vendor in the Prisoner episode "Free For All".
Shortly after completing his work on "The Prisoner", he decided to take up some offers in New Zealand and spent a few years there doing a lot of radio and TV work. He returned home to Middlesborough in January 1974 where he died. He was just 34 years old.
I'm indebted to Dene Cooper's sister Ethel and her husband Danny Devine for the biographical details and use of their personal photographs in compiling this article.
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